Students Study Bones in Mock Crime Scene
Class Project
By BRYNNA WILLIAMSON/ Vice Editor-in-Chief
It’s 2 o’clock, Nov. 14, and crime scene tape and skulls littered the front lawn of the UT Tyler greens outside of CAS.
Students will be relieved, however, to know that it was just a biological anthropology class practicing their crime scene investigation.
Biological Anthropology students discuss the dimensions of a replica bone to determine if they suspect it’s human. The class observed human, turkey, and primate bones in order to practice recognizing their differences. Photo by Nathan Witt.
More than a dozen students from Colleen Hanratty’s ANTH 3330 class gathered to take part in a series of previously formatted investigations, the majority of which were based on real cases that Hanratty had worked on herself.
“So they’ll have about … 40 pieces of different remains to identify, estimate stature, see if they’re interrelated — because the set up for these crime scenes is that we have entered the multiverse and unfortunately, many of the faculty are missing,” Hanratty said with a laugh. “So some of these match the profiles of, say, our dean and our chair. In good-natured fun, we’ve murdered off some of our faculty.”
A replica skull sits in the grass next to a numbered marker. Students studied qualities like skull volume to determine the person’s approximate age. Photo by Nathan Witt.
Under Hanratty’s watch, students were required to observe the crime scene and use given tools to estimate “biological sex, stature, age, cause of death,” and other indicators being taught in the class. The information would end up going into their final papers for the class.
“It’s both [fun and difficult],” said Jessica, a student taking ANTH 3330.
Jessica takes a close photo of a replica pelvis bone that will help her determine the gender of the skeleton. ANTH 3330 students have spent the semester learning these skills on paper and were able to put them into practice. Photo by Nathan Witt.
“It beats staying inside,” says Dillon, another student in the class. “At least it’s nice weather today!”
There are no prerequisites to take ANTH 3330, which is also being offered in spring 2024.
Students are staging a numbered marker to document a replica bone with a photo. The Biological anthropology students practiced the process of identifying and documenting remains found in the wilderness. Photo by Nathan Witt.
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